9:03- TIME TO END THE SUFFERING! I NEED A MINUTE TO MYSELF gets us started as we get the gladiator/nu-metal treatment that we’ve come to expect with every UFC broadcast. I hope that gladiator dude is getting paid every time this bit is shown. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Good for him, if so.

9:09- Chan Sung Jung plans to not let the fight go to the judges this time around. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to either if I had been bent over on national television the way he had in his first fight with Leonard Garcia by the judges. The problem is that it’s not like either Jung or Garcia wanted it to go to the judges last time, did they? They did spend fifteen minutes basically trying to kill one another, so don’t hold your breath for a finish this time, either.

9:17- Both a little tentative early on. Joe Rogan is apparently only noticing what Garcia does, too. *Garcia lands a leg kick* “Nice leg kick by Garcia!” *Jung lands a leg kick* “Notice how Garcia is up on his toes here?”

9:20- Jung takes a close round by getting a takedown, landing a nice (possibly illegal) knee, then getting another takedown in the last two minutes. Got full mount in the last ten seconds, too!

9:21- Garcia’s hand was definitely down there. Dan Miragliotta was literally three feet away staring right at it, too. Not that I’m complaining, since becoming a “downed” fighter by putting your hand on the mat is weak sauce, anyway.

9:26- Yep, it only took one solid strike to throw Leonard Garcia in “oh yeah?!?” mode. A flying knee landed pretty flush and put the two into a brawl momentarily until dual high kicks ended with Garcia falling to the canvas. Jung gets position on the mat and taps Garcia with a twister!!! Holy crap!

9:31- Jung gives Rogan a hug when he comes to interview him. Jung says he’s been boning up on Eddie Bravo YouTube videos and experimenting on his training partners to learn his moves.

9:35- Jake “The Forgotten One” Shields gets an interview. Shields says his other title wins “were great” but the UFC title is the one that means the most. UFC 129 is a monster card, by the way. GSP and Jose Aldo defending their titles, as well as Randy Couture taking Lyoto Machida.

9:41- Time for Sadollah-Johnson. The happy carousel of possible opponents didn’t stop until recently for Sadollah, who finally got a final opponent in DaMarques Johnson. Apparently he “has evolved as a mixed martial artist”. You’d have to think that’d be true of, well, pretty much all fighters under UFC contract. You certainly don’t want to devolve when you’re training six days a week, right?

9:42- Gem from Sadollah: “He takes me down ten times, I’ll get up eleven!” Wow. That’s a good strategy, see: he’s actually getting up before he’s even taken down! Might as well get it out of the way in advance, right?

9:51- A lot of slippage so far, with both fighters hitting the canvas that way already. Good fight overall, though Sadollah has failed to do the impossible by standing up x+1 times, where x=the number of times he’s taken down. Actually, I’m wrong. Sadollah hit the mat the first time by slipping, so he has technically stood back up more times than he’s been taken down. He’s been vindicated! Take that, smart ass writer!

9:55- Second round is off to a fast start as we’re getting a nice, technical brawl here. Sadollah gets half guard top position and is able to nearly pound Johnson out. Johnson turtles for a half-second and then comes back into the fight and is able to get out of the bad position and stand up. Sadollah plants him again though and is in full mount…Johnson looks like he’s feeling the effects of not having a full training camp.

9:57- Sadollah pounds out the stoppage and gets the win. Did he look great? Oh, I don’t know. He looked like he always does: good striker, moderate power, fun to watch, can’t ever imagine him winning a title.

10:01- Sure enough, Sadollah admits that he wanted to push the pace knowing that Johnson wouldn’t have a full gas tank on two weeks’ notice. Joe Rogan asks the bizarre question of whether Sadollah is hoping to move up the ranks now. “Um, no, Joe, I want to stay right where I’m at or maybe even be cut altogether.” What kind of question is that?!?

10:10- I have to say, that Shields-GSP commercial is extremely well done. They’re really playing up the “Shields as Clubber Lang” angle, which is totally appropriate given that everyone in the world has seemingly written him off. GSP says he has an edge because he knows what Shields is going to try to do to him, but Shields doesn’t know what he is going to do. Fair enough.

10:13- Pre-fight, Anthony Johnson suggests that an opportunistic young fan who brings his baseball glove to the fights may just catch Dan Hardy’s head as it flies into the crowd. I’m sure Dana White would just make the fan surrender it, anyway. The fan could probably pry the mouthpiece out and keep that, at least, so that’s something.

10:19- I wish I liked anything as much as Dan Hardy likes being introduced by Bruce Buffer.

10:24- Hardy is in a bad spot after getting knocked down by a high kick and mauled in the way he might if he pissed off a bear. Johnson is a huge welterweight- he looks like he could eat Hardy if he chose to. Johnson rides out the round on top and takes the first stanza in my book, as well as that of everyone else not named Doug Crosby.

10:26- Stop me if you’ve heard this before- Hardy is taken down with relative ease to open the round.

10:30- I’m surprised that Johnson hasn’t started fading yet. He easily took round two via control and takedowns. Hardy needs to really come up with something here.

10:36- Hardy shows gutsiness down the stretch as always, but still finds himself on the losing side of a decision. Should be 30-27 across the board.

10:49- Count me among those who don’t get the whole “writing on the mouthpiece” thing. An informal poll in my living room shows that two out of three respondents agree with me. A third wonders, “If you’re going to have writing on it, why not get a sponsor for it?” Good point!

10:54- Nogueira showing exceptional takedown defense in the first round. This is a real test for Davis now, who should be down 10-9.

11:01- Davis really responded in the last two minutes, taking down Nogueira and pounding him pretty good for the last sixty seconds in particular. Now let’s see who really wants it, eh? I love this kind of fight.

11:08- Davis aptly plays the third round smartly, taking down Nogueira but staying safely out of his guard. He wins the UD in my book, 29-28. Hmmm…all three judges gave it to Davis 30-27. Nogueira is in a bad stretch now. Davis says afterward that he was “falling apart” during his training camp and didn’t know if he could make it through. Davis continues down the more conventional path for a prospect; he’s not blowing people away Jon Jones-style, but he’s still making his way up and getting the experience he needs in the meanwhile.

11:12- Well folks, that’s all for tonight. Thanks for joining me here at Fightmania.com, and make sure to check us out next week as we gear up for another season (for better or worse) of The Ultimate Fighter.